The Justice Department claims a Washington Post article about the potential of national security letters for the invasion of privacy of ordinary Americans is inaccurate -- in 17 respects.

WAPO publisher Len Downie disagrees.

the "Justice Department letter does not document any inaccuracies in our story on national security letters, which revealed the widespread use and limited oversight of this investigative tool. The letter relies on words like 'implies' and 'insinuates' to assert claims the story does not make. The story speaks for itself."

I wrote at length about the WAPO article here.

Josh Marshall has a good explanation of why the "bi-partisan" scandal meme is wrong:

The Duke Cunningham scandal is a Republican scandal, which we'll soon see spreads into the Rumsfeld Defense Department. The Abramoff scandal tracks into the Interior Department and the GSA.

Then there's Tom DeLay, remember him, former House Majority Leader, now under indictment in Texas. Set aside that he's also implicated in the Abramoff scandal and quite probably the Duke Cunningham scandal as well. And then in the other body you've got Sen. Bill Frist who is at the center of a criminal investigation into his stock sales. ....
Two Republican members of Congress are under indictment.

Say Hello to News Unfiltered, a project by Daou Report's Peter Daou and U.S. Newswire, bringing you the top press releases of the day in blog format. I love it, it's a "bookmark right now" type of site.

Jeff at Protein Wisdom finds a New Zealand news article reporting that Quantas and Air New Zealand have adopted a policy that prohibits men from sitting next to unacompanied children on planes.

Political correctness gone mad? How about sheer idiocy? All men ought to be seeing red over this one. Jeff says:

....what happens when a westernized country becomes enthralled with identity politics (and overly fearful of victim litigation). Christ. Guilty until proven innocent. Hate crime legislation. Fear of giving offense. Empowering the frequently and easily offended in the name of “tolerance”. What a mess we’ve made of things.

I don't buy that the policy is grounded either in political correctness or tolerance. I'd call it blatant stereotyping that the airlines have been bullied into by one increasingly dangerous lobby: victimhood.

A new report finds that wiretaps conducted by law enforcement are subject to security breaches from readily available devices:

The technology used for decades by law enforcement agents to wiretap telephones has a security flaw that allows the person being wiretapped to stop the recorder remotely, according to research by computer security experts who studied the system. It is also possible to falsify the numbers dialed, they said.

Someone being wiretapped can easily employ these "devastating countermeasures" with off-the-shelf equipment, said the lead researcher, Matt Blaze, an associate professor of computer and information science at the University of Pennsylvania.

The new finding have some serious legal implications:

Democracy Now Wednesday will feature interviews with Stanley "Tookie" Williams, awaiting a clemency meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Lori Berenson, imprisoned for ten years in a Peruvian jail. Go here to listen in.

A Conversation with Death Row Prisoner Stanley Tookie Williams

Two weeks from the date of his scheduled execution, Williams speaks from death row with Democracy Now! about his case, his life and his redemption. Williams helped start the Crips street gang. But behind bars he has become a leading advocate for the end of gang violence. He has written nine books and has been nominated several times for the Nobel Peace Prize. He is scheduled to die on Dec. 13.

Rep. Randy Cunningham who resigned in disgrace after his guilty plea to bribery and related charges will cooperate with the feds in investigating others. He was a major Congressional drug warrior - in 1994 he voted for legislation carrying the death penalty for drug kingpins.

Then his son became one. In 1997, Todd Cunningham was arrested and charged in a conspiracy to fly 400 pounds of marijuana into an airport near Boston. He faced a five year mandatory minimum sentence. He cooperated with others in the conspiracy and in 1998, at a hearing that included a "tearful plea" from his father, was only sentenced to two and one half years.

In reporting on his son's sentencing, the AP noted (11/18/98) the elder Cunningham had some other trouble of his own that year:

by TChris

Robin Lovitt will not be the victim of execution 1,000. Doubts about Lovitt's guilt cannot be resolved because the government destroyed the only evidence that could establish his innocence. He was scheduled to die on Wednesday.

Acknowledging the compelling need to "reaffirm public confidence in our justice system," Gov. Mark Warner today granted clemency to Lovitt. While Lovitt will serve a life sentence without parole, he won't be executed.

Thank you, Gov. Warner.

by TChris

This is the system American soldiers are fighting (and dying) to protect?

As the American military pushes the largely Shiite Iraqi security services into a larger role in combating the insurgency, evidence has begun to mount suggesting that the Iraqi forces are carrying out executions in predominantly Sunni neighborhoods.

Hundreds of accounts of killings and abductions have emerged in recent weeks, most of them brought forward by Sunni civilians, who claim that their relatives have been taken away by Iraqi men in uniform without warrant or explanation.

Some Sunni men have been found dead in ditches and fields, with bullet holes in their temples, acid burns on their skin, and holes in their bodies apparently made by electric drills. Many have simply vanished.

by TChris

Having trouble keeping track of all the governors and members of Congress who are dogged by accusations of wrongdoing? Chris Cillizza assembled this handy scandal scorecard as a quick reference.

by TChris

Former Representative Randall "Duke" Cunningham, whose bribery conviction and resignation are discussed here, is rolling over on his coconspirators. Who will he bring down?

Cunningham's 33-page guilty plea Monday says the congressman worked with four coconspirators to take $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors and others over the past five years. The money went to pay for a San Diego estate, a Virginia condominium, a Rolls-Royce and a litany of other luxury items.

The plea agreement did not name the alleged conspirators, but details such as business addresses and occupations made some of their identities apparent. One was Mitchell Wade, former president of MZM Inc., a Washington, D.C., firm that does classified intelligence work for the military. The documents also suggest that another conspirator was Brent Wilkes, an associate of Wade's who headed a defense contracting company called ADCS Inc., which also provided campaign cash and favors to Cunningham while reaping valuable contracts.

I wish I could spend the day here blogging, but I can't. Here's an open thread so you can have your say.

Update: Tuesday's over, thread closed.